>>>
but, let's begin this half hour with how the not
guilty verdict
is playing out across the country. nbc's
jeff rossen
is outside our studio with that part of the story.
>>
good morning to you. i've been out here talking to a lot of people about where they were when the verdict came in. some people on the plaza told me they were on a train and watched on their
mobile phones
. others stopped their vacations in their tracks and stayed in their
hotel rooms
to watch it live. i was in an airport and people were literally glued to the television set. when you heard the words not guilty you heard screams, tears, gasps. not since
o.j. simpson
has reaction been so powerful.
>>
we the jury find the defendant not guilty.
>> reporter:
in orlando, it's personal.
>>
all that evidence led to that girl doing this.
>>
who cares for that baby?
>>
orange county
, florida --
>> reporter:
as the jury passed judgment --
>>
as to the charge of first degree murder, we the jury find the defendant not guilty.
>> reporter:
as
casey
anthony wiped tears of joy, americans passed judgment, too. many of them mothers.
>>
that
little girl
's life.
>>
she's absolutely guilty.
>>
as to the charge of aggravated --
>> reporter:
millions watched the verdict live all over
cable tv
. they watched on airplanes with ipads, even at the scene where caylee's body was discovered. across the country, offices came to a
stand still
. and at home, quick reaction posted on youtube.
>>
how is that possible?
>>
she's going to walk.
>> reporter:
what began is that missing toddler case in florida quickly morphed into a national obsession.
>>
we don't really feel like we got any answers. so it's unresolved. and what happens with things that are unresolves? we need to continue having a conversation about it.
>> reporter:
and we are. within seconds the verdict went viral. on twitter, celebrities went off. if the courts don't believe she is guilty, then who do they think killed this little baby, tweeted
kim kardashian
.
sharon osbourne
called it a disgray. and
ashton kutcher
tweeted, o.j. simp on the finds this verdict outrageous.
>>
i don't understand how 12 people could let her get away with murder.
>> reporter:
despite the public outpouring of outrage, not everyone is upset. some say the jury got it right.
>>
people don't make accidents look like murder.
>> reporter:
the prosecutors just didn't prove their case.
>>
they just must not have been enough hard factual evidence.
>>
you have to have the evidence to make a conviction.
>> reporter:
whether you agree or not, there is one undisputed truth, a beautiful 2-year-old girl is gone, and we don't know why. now comes the next conversation, what is next for
casey
antony? will she walk out of court? and if so, ann, what kind of life will she possibly live?
>>
that's a good question. here to make sense of the vurd, linda kenny baden, "headline news" contributor and
star jones
is a former prosecutor and veteran legal commentator, and
savannah guthrie
, "today's" legal correspondent. lar san lamar said this was a
dry bones
case. very, very difficult to prove. was this a failure by the prosecution or a weak case?
>>
both. the prosecution never had
cause of death
. they never proved this was a murder. they relied on, what jose said in court, fantasy forensics, a heart-shaped sticker that was never there. it was outrageous to go after the
death penalty
in a case like this. it was clear the jury understood that.
>>
you did the forensics so you obviously have much more expertise on what the forensics actually showed and she can't even share all of it with us although we've been trying to get it out of her all morning. i can tell you from a prosecutor's perspective they did the best job they could with the evidence that they had.
>>
so was originally then you're saying you're acknowledging that they didn't have enough to work with, savannah?
>>
yes, excellent prosecutors. tried a very streamline, tight case. they're only as good as the evidence they have. what's fascinating here is, and we've only heard from the one alternate juror we spoke to, this may be a case not only where the jurors have
reasonable doubt
, that's for sure, but they found some of the commentary, i'm starting to wonder whether they actually believe
casey
anthony is innocent, if they buy the defense theory that the baby died in the pool.
>>
she drowned in the
swimming pool
. i mean, i think the jurors haven't spoken and we should embrace their verdict. when we talk about using fantasy forensics and someone like dr. vass who has never testified in the
united states
before, you're pitting this type of people against the defense experts.
>>
you're also saying that there was an effort or there's a sense that you think the jurors had that they were not getting the full picture. the prosecution was trying to pull something over their eyes.
>>
absolutely. they kept saying the
duct tape
was the murder weapon, the
duct tape
was the murder weapon. then they didn't bring roy kronk to the scene and turns out he moved the body. he picked up the bag and things shifted around. the prosecution also introduced 84 chloroform searches which turned out not to be true. i think they lost their credibility.
>>
so is then jose baez, was he underestimated? because i know a lot of you talking about this being his first case, underestimated?
>>
as linda and i were talking about it, he kicked somebody's butt yesterday, didn't he? he ended up getting the needle out of the arm of every expert i've talked to who said the case was strong forensically.
>>
he did a competent job. the results speak for themselves. on the other hand, he was a beneficiary of these various gaps in evidence.
>>
31-day. the prosecution is stuck with the evidence that happened after not being able to get to this baby for 31 days. that was on your client. period.
>>
but they still had to prove a case and they chose to go about it this way.
death penalty
murder case. she's not
ted bundy
. she's not
osama bin laden
.
>>
there's a big disconnect because what you're saying essentially is the prosecution didn't have everything it needed to work with to get this verdict, and yet the people who are watching on the outside are so stunned by this verdict. what explains this disconnect?
>>
i think what explains the disckoconnect is the difference between chatting about a case at your kitchen table, gosh, she must have done something, her behavior is ter establish suspicious. star and i agree, it is. and having the elements of a crime before you sitting in a jury holding someone's
life or death
in your hands, and the jurors, when they go back there and they've got the
jury instructions
about
reasonable doubt
, that's a concept they take very seriously.
>>
the difference between disappointment is not in what you get but what you expect to get. and when we as pundits in some of the
cable channels
give you an expectation of what's going to happen in a courtroom when you don't have the same amount of evidence in front of you that the jury does, you have analysis, you expect to get something different.
>>
short of someone confessing, is there any justice for caylee that you can see coming.
>>
there has to be a murder. there may be justice for caylee that her mother wasn't convicted for murder when there wasn't a murder. this
young woman
, you look at those pictures. she loved that child. yes, she should have acted differently.
>>
the crime might have been a cover up and not murder.
>>
the baby should not have ended up in a swamp. i don't care who killed her. i don't care if she died by accident, in a
swimming pool
or tripped down the stairs. the baby deserved better than to end up in a swamp.
>>
mean tile, as jurorses, obviously not speaking except for the one alternate juror. i believe that's the only one speaking so far. you're concerned about their safety?
>>
absolutely. i hope they stay secluded. why they thought what they thought, i'm concerned about this. when you have celebrities like
ashton kutcher
and
sharon osbourne
talking about this was a disgrace, they weren't in that courtroom.
>>
i can see why jurors don't want to talk and want to keep their
private lives
private because the atmosphere right now is so heated, it's so over overcharged. after you're questioned about justice. i heard a judge says the justice is done when the system works, when there is a fair process. i think we can all agree the trial was a fair process.
>>
absolutely.
>>
we're going to leave it, is.a su tu so much.
>>>
now let's get a check of the weather from maria la rosa who is in
